🤖 Perplexity AI emerges as a notable Google rival, DeepMind's material discovery questioned, and TikTok explores AI influencers.
Today’s pick
'Like Wikipedia And ChatGPT Had A Kid': Inside The Buzzy AI Startup Coming For Google's Lunch. Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, is backed by tech VIPs like Jeff Bezos, and counts billionaires like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang among its frequent users. Now, its early traction puts it on a collision course with the search giant. In August 2022, Aravind Srinivas and Denis Yarats waited outside Meta AI chief Yann LeCun's office in lower Manhattan for five long hours, skipping lunch for the chance to give the NYU professor a demo of their AI program. By Rashi Shrivastava via Forbes
𝕏: When I led @perplexity_ai's first round of funding I was massively impressed with velocity to ship, and ability to hire amazing people. Sill true today - Elad Gil (@eladgil)
Is Google's AI Actually Discovering 'Millions of New Materials? In November, Google’s AI outfit DeepMind published a press release titled “Millions of new materials discovered with deep learning." But now, researchers who have analyzed a subset of what DeepMind discovered say "we have yet to find any strikingly novel compounds" in that subset. “AI tool GNoME finds 2.2 million new crystals, including 380,000 stable materials that could power future technologies,” By Jason Koebler via 404 Media
𝕏: Back in November, Google announced 2.2 milllion new materials. Today, a paper in Chemistry of Materials from Ram Seshadri and Tony Cheetham dismantles that claim - Robert Palgrave (@Robert_Palgrave)
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TikTok Plots Using Virtual Influencers for Advertising. TikTok touts itself as a platform where creators can stand out and build a following. But the company has begun discussing with advertisers an artificial intelligence-powered feature that would generate avatars to star in videos—virtual influencers that would potentially compete with human creators for ad deals. The feature, which is still under development and could change, would generate a script for a video ad based on a prompt submitted by the advertiser, as well as an AI-generated influencer to perform in the video, according to an advertiser who has seen plans for the tool. By Erin Woo via The Information
𝕏: TikTok has started pitching advertisers on an in-development generative AI tool that would create AI avatars to star in their ads—potentially competing with creators for brand deals in the process. Erin Woo (@erinkwoo)
Google One VPN will be discontinued, Pixel VPN remains with upgrade coming. Back in October of 2020, Google One introduced a VPN that later became available on all plans and platforms. Google announced today that the VPN by Google One is shutting down in the coming months. It was originally pitched as providing an “extra layer of online protection for your Android phone” and “peace of mind that your data is safe,” with the company publishing a white paper that detailed how it works. By Abner Li via 9to5Google
𝕏: Google is emailing Google One subscribers to inform them that the free VPN by Google One service is being discontinued later this year.Google is also discontinuing free shipping for select print orders from Google Photos in Canada, the UK, the U.S., and the EU starting May 15. - Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman)
China Tells Telecom Carriers to Phase Out Foreign Chips in Blow to Intel, AMD. China’s push to replace foreign technology is now focused on cutting American chip makers out of the country’s telecom systems. Officials earlier this year directed the nation’s largest telecom carriers to phase out foreign processors that are core to their networks by 2027, a move that would hit American chip giants Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, people familiar with the matter said. By Liza Lin via Wall Street Journal
𝕏: When I read articles like this, I wonder imagine if there was leadership in Washington with balls to go to companies like Apple and say: “You have until 2027 to stop making iPhones in China and start making in America.” - JaguarAnalytics (@JaguarAnalytics)
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